The following is an excerpt from an exchange with John Kirby, the State Department Spokesperson during the Daily Press Briefing of August 18, 2015:

QUESTION: John, if I can change quickly. Just a clarification I wanted to get from the State Department on Secretary Clinton’s emails. Is it still the position of the State Department that no emails that came through the server were classified at their origination on the server, as opposed to being retroactively classified?

MR KIRBY: It is still our view that we have no indication that any of the emails that have been upgraded —

QUESTION: That’s not what he’s asking. So he’s talking about the ones that were —

MR KIRBY:But I don’t have to answer the question you ask. I just have to respond the way I want to. (Laughter.) So let me finish, and then if I don’t get at it – I wasn’t even through my first sentence and you challenged me.